Application Platform News
Our latest news and commentary on applications, covering closed development platforms, SaaS vendors and related online services.
Chinese tech start-ups pull IPO plans as Beijing tightens scrutiny
A growing number of Chinese tech start-ups are cancelling plans to list on Nasdaq-style markets at home with some eyeing Hong Kong share sales instead, as regulators tighten scruti...
Singapore to accept COVID-19 digital travel pass from next month
Singapore will next month accept visitors who use a mobile travel pass containing digital certificates for COVID-19 tests and vaccines, its aviation regulator said on Monday, becom...
Oracle offers to move clients to cloud for free as it plays catch-up
Oracle Corp has announced it will migrate companies’ most complicated computer programs to its cloud for free as it tries to catch a new wave of potential cloud-computing cli...
Google Maps to start directing drivers to ‘eco-friendly’ routes
Google’s Maps app will start directing drivers along routes estimated to generate the lowest carbon emissions based on traffic, slopes and other factors, the company has anno...
Software vendors would have to disclose breaches under new order
A planned executive order by President Joe Biden will require many software vendors to notify their federal government customers when the companies have a cybersecurity breach, acc...
Slack to fix error in direct messaging feature over harassment concerns
Workplace messaging app Slack Technologies said it was working to fix an error in the direct-messaging feature it introduced earlier on Wednesday, which could have lead to online h...
Microsoft rolls back update to fix access issues for thousands
Microsoft Corp has stated that the glitches that affected access to its workplace messaging app Teams, Outlook.com and other services have been largely fixed after it rolled back a...
Microsoft could reap more than $150 million in new US cyber spending
Microsoft stands to receive nearly a quarter of COVID relief funds destined for US cybersecurity defenders, sources told journalists, angering some lawmakers who don’t want t...
Microsoft and Google openly feuding amid hacks and competition inquiries
Driven in part by pressure from lawmakers and regulators over the extraordinary power the two technology giants wield over American life, the two players are wrestling to throw eac...
Oman blocks Clubhouse citing lack of permit
Oman has blocked US-based audio app Clubhouse because it did not have the right permit, authorities said, but some activists described the move as a further erosion of freedom of e...
Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee says “fad” of platform giants will pass
Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, has said the dominance of internet giants is a “fad” that does not have to endure, adding that urgent change was ne...
India likely to block Huawei Technologies over security fears
India is likely to block its mobile carriers from using telecom equipment made by China’s Huawei, two government officials said, under procurement rules due to come into forc...
Pakistan blocks TikTok over indecency complaint
Pakistan has blocked the viral social media app TikTok after a court order over a complaint that it ran indecent content, a spokesman for the country’s telecoms regulator sai...
Is England’s $32 billion COVID test and trace making difference?
A UK parliamentary committee has said England’s controversial $32 billion test and trace system has not made a significant impact on the COVID-19 pandemic and failed its key ...